TEGUCIGALPA. WHY NOT?By PATRICIA VOLK

Published: November 12, 1995

(Page 3 of 3)

At La Cascada, a skyscraper waterfall, we lunched on ham and cheese sandwiches and, seven hours later (if I can do it, anyone can), emerged from the forest overlooking the Valley of the Singing Frogs. We followed a trail lined with yellow honeysuckle into the ghost town of El Rosario. The New York San Rosario Mining Company had its offices here from 1885 until the silver was tapped out in 1954. (Tegucigalpa means "silver hill.") It looks like everyone will be back in a minute. A caretaker is starting a museum. He has geodes, old mining tools and a sheaf of Tropical Radio Telegraph Company radiograms:

W. L. PARKS

NEW YORK SAN ROSARIO MINING COMPANY

JAN. 2, 1947

DAD SERIOUSLY ILL CAN YOU COME HOME IMMEDIATELY

On the way back to town, we stopped in Valle de Angeles, an adobe village where campesinos still tether their horses in front of the shops. It's the best place to buy Honduran crafts: hammocks, leather bags, carved wood, etched and painted red clay pottery, embroidered white blouses and straw everything. Hungry from our hike, we stopped for a snack at La Epoca, on the Calle al Mineral, where the plato tipico starts at 25 lempiras, or about $2.50. Oil lamps flickered. Mozart's "Requiem" was in the air. We ate tacos with an avalanche of shredded cheese followed by frijoles the way God meant them to be. Next door, Miguel Ordonez keeps an antiques store called El Atico, and if you ask him, he'll show you his own sculpture. I could shoot myself for not buying his whittled crucifix with movable arms although I did get a thing I thought was a candleholder only to discover it's a vase made of the dried calabash that farmers use as bowls and drinking glasses.

Tegucigalpa is a place unaffected by what someone thinks you want or expect. The people are naturally reserved yet gracious. No one ever gives you a check until you ask for it. "Time is of no essence in Tegucigalpa," a man who vacations here three times a year told me. "What's gonna happen if you're not there at 9?" It's otherworldly, Twilight Zonish, but not for long. At least two new hotels are going up. The double-barreled shotguns displayed by security guards took some getting used to. But back at La Guardia Airport, my husband began pointing out people with guns, so I guess I'm just used to guys in crisp uniforms with holsters as opposed to guys in flapping shirts slinging rifles.

I keep wondering why more people don't known about Tegucigalpa, why it doesn't have a slogan. There's no "Tegucigalpa: Eden Lives" campaign or "Tegucigalpa: The Past Is Waiting." Maybe its target audience isn't the kind of person who gets targeted. If you need hot tubs, Pacific Rim cuisine and bathroom freebies from Caswell-Massey, Tegucigalpa is not the town for you. If you like time warps, adventure and picnics at the ends of bumpy roads, come now.

"Tegucigalpa?" my friend Marjie says. "I don't know where it is, but it sounds like it sells silver jewelry."

It doesn't.

I Tegucigalpa.

TEGUCIGALPA HANDBOOK HOTEL ALAMEDA, Boulevard Suyapa, Post Office Box 940 (telephone: 32-6920; fax: 32-6932), a colonial-style building with two swimming pools, has 75 rooms. A double room costs about $75. There is a restaurant serving local and international fare for about $10 a meal, including a glass of wine.

HOTEL HONDURAS MAYA, Avenida Republica de Chile at Calle Dos (32-3191; fax: 32-7629), a modern hotel with Mayan trimmings, has nearly 200 rooms. Double rooms cost $137, including buffet breakfast. Facilities include a pool, a coffee shop, a restaurant serving international dishes (dinner costs about $15 to $20, with a glass of wine), a shopping arcade and casino. In the United States, reservations can be made through Utell International (800-448-8355). HOTEL PLAZA SAN MARTIN, Colonia Palmira on Plaza San Martin, Post Office Box 864 (37-2928; fax: 31-1366), has 110 rooms. Double rooms are about $115. Rooms have balconies and refrigerators; there is no pool, but guests may use the nearby Hotel Honduras Maya pool for about $3. The restaurant serves local and international dishes for about $10.

The menu at EL PATIO, on the Boulevard Morazan (504-32-9646), includes such traditional Honduran specialties as pinchos, the Honduran equivalent of shish kebabs, beans warmed over cinders and various kinds of barbecued meats. The cost of a meal, with beer or wine, starts at about $5. Open daily for lunch and dinner.

Milton Funes of ECO-TOURS HONDURAS, Post Office Box 30171 (33-8486; fax: 39-8961), organizes a variety of outings, including dolphin swims, mangrove tours, trips to the Mayan ruins at Copan, and overnight stays at a coffee plantation, tobacco farm or with the Lenca tribe. From Tegucigalpa, a day trip to La Tigra National Park costs about $45 a person for a group of four or about $80 a person for two, and includes a picnic lunch.

Photos: TOP: The colorfully decorated El Patio restaurant, where itisn't easy to spend more than $12 for a meal.; Center: The Plaza de Soldado; the monument commemorates a brief war with El Salvador in 1969.; Bottom: Guards at the Museo Nacional, which is dedicated to national history and anthropology. (pg. 15); On the Calle Peatonal, a mall in the center of town. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY MACDUFF EVERTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. 34)